Source: Gulfnews.comRas Al Khaimah: Shaikh Mohammad Bin Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Crown Prince of Ras Al Khaimah, witnessed the release of 48 captive-bred houbara bustards at the Banyan Tree Al Wadi on Friday. Shaikh Mohammad released the first bird, which is fitted with a satellite transmitter, as part of the President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Houbara Reintroduction Project in the UAE and Arabian Peninsula to restore a sustainable wild population of a bird synonymous with local culture and traditions in the UAE. The move also underscores the determination by His Highness Shaikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah, to focus on environmental issues. The release of the bird was carried out by the Ras Al Khaimah Environmental Protection and Development Authority (EPDA-RAK) in collaboration with the International Fund for Houbara Conservation (IFHC). Dr Saif Mohammad Al Ghais, Executive Director of EPDA-RAK, said the omnivorous bird, which feeds on seeds, insects and other small creatures, is considered an icon of Arabia deserts and is widely prized as a quarry for falconers. The houbara bustard is found in south Asia, Arabia, Saudi Arabia, North Africa (Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Morocco) and parts of western Europe.

Royal Malaysian Customs have just announced the seizure of 24 tons of ivory in Port Klang. This is the largest-ever seizure of ivory in transit through the country. The 1,500 pieces of ivory came from over 750 elephants and were exported from Togo, a tiny west African country that has fewer than 200 elephants. The ivory was hidden in containers containing wooden crates that were built to look like stacks of sawn timber. The two crates were shipped from the port of Lomé in Togo, and were going to China via Algeria, Spain and Malaysia. Richard Leakey, the former Director of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), who set Kenya’s ivory stockpile alight in 1989, responded to the announcement.

“We have been warning that the ivory trade is out of control for some years now. This seizure is equal in size to all of the ivory seized in 2011 from Africa and it represents the tip of the iceberg. Unless African governments and donors respond, there will be no elephants left”.

Bonadventure Ebayi, CEO of the Lusaka Agreement Task Force the African Interpol for wildlife, echoed Leakey’s statement, He says he is not at all surprised with this seizure, and he predicts many more to come. Togo has virtually no law enforcement to speak of—in trafficking circles it is considered something of a free port. It is a country through which timber from other central African countries is exported by both China and Malaysia. The ivory, he believes, came from several central African countries. More....

All are equal under the law, or at least should be in every country in the world, but exceptions are clearly made for the rich, or rather the very rich. Algeria for example has always been very strict in the field of animal protection. If you are an Algerian citizen and you are caught poaching with some old shotgun, you could end up in prison for several years. But if you are a Saudi sheikh and you love to try the ancient art of falconry, then everything changes. This is in fact happening in Dhayet Bellegwmiri, 20 kilometres from Hassi-Delaa, where a vast camp has been set up in a very short time. The well-equipped camp is occupied by a group of noble Saudis who love hunting with their falcons. Their favourite pray animals are bustards (large migratory birds that come to North Africa from Europe to winter) and gazelles. Their equipment gives them quite an edge over their possible victims: off-road vehicles able to drive fast on the sandy terrain; GPS, telescopes and more cutting-edge technology. They also use sophisticated communication systems and field kitchens, a far cry from the way common people in Algeria hunt. According to newspaper La Liberte', which has denounced the situation quoting its own sources, nearly all assistants of the Saudi princes are Yemenite nationals, while the Saudis have hired locals who know the hunting grounds well to guide them to their pray. But the nationality of the dozens of armed men who protect the Saudi princes is unclear. Algerian animal protection activists have underlined that hunting the targeted species is absolutely forbidden in the area, as well as hunting other species on the endangered list. But local residents have pointed out that the mad hunt on bustards has a very ''human'' motive. The meet of this large wader, particularly its heart and liver, are thought to be highly aphrodisiac, as much as the famous coloured pills. But the hunted animals, like the bustard and many gazelle species living in Algeria, are protected by Algerian legislation. But pecunia non olet ("money does not stink'') and apparently it is easy to turn a blind eye to an activity that is still poaching, but one that brings in a lot of money.

Their body parts are used for medicinal purposes and their habitats are being destroyed. Small wonder then that the striped hyena is in danger of being wiped off the face of the planet.There are three types of hyenas, namely the spotted, the brown and the striped species. They belong to the family Hyaenidae and are found mostly in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.Though the striped hyena is the smallest of the true hyenas it is nonetheless a powerful creature. It is not as vocally expressive as the other species but bears the same typical canine-like features. Striped hyenas have distinctive streaks of black stripes running down their coarse grey or sandy-brown shaggy fur, starting from the crest on their backs and extending down to their legs and long bushy tail.Their claws may be blunt but their jaws are said to be strong enough to grip the throats of their prey and break open the large dry bones of carcasses they also feed on. Hyenas are carnivorous, but the striped hyenas are omnivores since they have been observed to eat anything while scavenging for food during the night.The Known ThreatsIn 1986 the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) placed the striped hyena species under the “Vulnerable” classification. In 2008 their total population was assessed and the numbers had dwindled to an estimated 5,000 to 14,000 mature striped species. Their continuous decline has now put them on the IUCN’s Red List of “Near Threatened” animals. More....

Source: Thenational.aeBy James CalderwoodKuwait carried out its first animal confiscation last month, seven years after signing up to an international convention to clamp down on the trade in endangered species, a move hailed by conservationists as an important step towards stemming a growing tide of animals trafficked into the Gulf state. The animal, a Eurasian brown bear, was seized from a home in Kabed, on the outskirts of Kuwait City, by officials from the government's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the police after a tip-off from K's Path (the Kuwait Society for the Protection of Animals and their Habitat). K's Path, a non-governmental organisation, had mounted an "undercover investigation" to monitor and photograph the bear after receiving calls from the public that the animal was on sale for 2,000 Kuwaiti dinar (Dh25,500), said John Peaveler, the managing director of K's Path. The bear was chained by the neck to the inside of a tiny, sun-exposed cage and fed on rice and meagre amounts of water, their website said. The society took their evidence to the EPA, which is responsible for Kuwait's obligations under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) agreements. Countries that sign up to Cites are bound by its rules, which regulate seizure, housing and repatriation of protected species. Kuwait signed up in 2002, but has not enforced the rules because of a "lack of complementary animal protection laws and of political willpower", K's Path said. Mr Peaveler said the EPA co-ordinated with the police and Kuwait Zoo to confiscate the bear, along with a baboon. Other animals including a cheetah and a gazelle that were discovered by K's Path investigation were removed before the impound team arrived, he said. K's Path's website said Kuwait has a large black market for illegally imported animals, including lions, tigers, cheetahs, gazelles, jackals and chimpanzees, often used as pets. The spokesman for Kuwait's Public Authority for Agriculture and Fish Resources (PAAF) refused to discuss the case. The EPA did not respond to questions about the bear. The bear is now being kept in Kuwait Zoo. "This is an important step, but we're trying to get him to a proper sanctuary in Greece," Mr Peaveler said. Farida Mulla Ahmed, the director of Kuwait Zoo, said the bear is being kept in a temporary cage until the zoo finishes building a more suitable enclosure in the next two months. "Since I have been director of -Kuwait Zoo for the last two years, we've done three or four confiscations," but this was the first from a private home. "We have confiscated a bison, a bear and three cheetahs this year, and maybe 20 baboons," she said. Cites restricts the trade of about 28,000 species of plant and 5,000 species of animals, including the brown bear, which is ranked as "vulnerable". The animal used to roam many parts of the Middle East, but it is now extinct in Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Israel, the Palestinian territories and Syria, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's website said. Iran and Iraq still have native populations. More....